This is a store bought peach tree that I planted atmymothers house near Albany NY. It is thriving at her place intone 5. I’m tempted to take some cuttings and graft to peach rootstock. This was a purchase from Lowes about 10 years. Not sure of the rootstock or variety of this tree. I don’t know much about peaches. Any recommendations?
If the peaches taste good. It is obviously cold hardy including fruit bud hardy,
Collect a few scionwood ( this year growth) in the winter when the tree is fully dormant. I suggest wrapping scionwoods with parafilm and put them in a gall9n ziplock plastic bag and store the bag in a fridge.
Lovell is probably the most universal peach rootstock, but last year it was hard to find for sale online. Hopefully someone has it available online this year. Since I couldn’t find Lovell last year, I went with Krymsk 1 from Raintree Nursery. K1 is very dwarfing and somewhat unproven for peaches but is said to probably/possibly work. I think Burnt Ridge will stock Lovell but they don’t have their stock updated yet for next year. Same with Grandpa’s Orchard. Prunus Americana (wild plum) is also a probable candidate for peach, but it has some doubters. It is usually easy to find online and also locally at county extension bare root sales in the spring. I’ve bench grafted peach to both K1 and Prunus Americana successfully but the trees are still very young.
UPDATE–> I just checked Burnt Ridge and it looks like they have some rootstock selections available, including Lovell.
Considering that peaches on Lovell and other vigorous rootstocks can be kept semi-dwarfed with pruning, anyone with the space is probably better off with it than anything more dwarfing- unless you are in the south and need Nemaguard
. Peaches are not always very long lived trees on vigorous roots stocks- survival becomes less assured with loss of vigor. Reports of problems with peaches on Citation are not a good sign- it is not even a fully dwarfing rootstock.
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